Blood Donation System Simultaneously Collects Two Units

An innovative blood collection system designed for ease-of-use and donor comfort permits collection of two units of red blood cells from one blood donor in a single donation.

The Cymbal system is highly mobile, can be battery operated, and meets blood collectors' need to cost-effectively collect more blood on community blood drives. The device allows blood collectors to remove white blood cells--a process called leuko-reduction--during the collection process, cells that can potentially be harmful if transfused to another patient, thus saving processing time and cost. The blood is processed in a closed-circuit sterile-consumable set that is seated in the device. The device separates the blood into its components and directs only the red blood cells into a collection bag. The plasma and platelets that are not collected are returned to the blood donor.

The Cymbal is a product of Haemonetics (Braintree, MA, USA). The system has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has received the European Community (CE) mark.

Red blood cells are the most frequently transfused blood component, yet they are also often in short supply. Historically, red cells have been manually separated from whole blood, netting only one transfusible dose of red cells from a single blood donation.


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